Offense Shines In Final Preseason Scrimmage

Terrance Broadway looked like he was mid-season form on Saturday morning in Cajun Field as the junior guided the Ragin' Cajuns offense past the defense in the final preseason scrimmage of camp.

After originally planning on sitting the Cajuns starters, head coach Mark Hudspeth changed direction and had the first unit play, but without contact. The second and third teams also played, but with full contact, allowing the coaching staff to solidify the playing rotation for the season.

"This was like a tale of two weeks," Hudspeth said. "The defense controlled play last week but the offense turned it around this week."

With the season opener at Arkansas just 14 days away, the offense looked sharp.

"The offense came out and executed at a high level," Hudspeth said. "The play started up front where the offensive line gave our quarterbacks time. When that happens, Terrance Broadway and our freshmen can be very dangerous."

"This is the third year that basically the same guys are running the same offense. With guys like (Darryl) Surgent, (Andre) Huval, (Daniel) Quave, (Alonzo) Harris and both tight ends (Jacob Maxwell & Ian Thompson, each of whom are pretty much starting for their third straight year, they are very comfortable in the system. When they execute it like they did today, we can be real good."

"We've got really good quality and depth this year," Hudspeth said. "I liked what I saw from Devin Scott, Devin Figaro and Ricky Johnson. That gives us nine receivers that I'd feel comfortable putting on the field."

One area where the depth has not yet been defined is at quarterback where the trio of Brooks Haack, D'Shaie Landor and Jalen Nixon continue to compete to backup Broadway.

The competition remains to close to call after each of the reserves played well on Saturday.

"They each started slow and then came on strong and did some good things today," Hudspeth said. "We'll have to grade the film real tight and look for who was the most productive and who moved the chains most efficiently."

Although the defense didn't perform at the level it had during both the first scrimmage and for most of the first two weeks of practice, Hudspeth remained convinced that the defense will be improved this fall.

"I saw a lot of good things from the defense today," Hudspeth said. "The development I've seen over the last two weeks really built on our spring performance."

The Cajuns will take Sunday off, their first true off day since reporting for camp on August 4th, before resuming practice on Monday.

"We'll change our focus this week and start to get ready for Arkansas," Hudspeth said.